2009 Pontiac G8

Jonathon Ramsey at Autoblog.com says he'll take one anyway. Besides the fun factor, Ramsey says the range-topping G8 GXP qualifies nicely as "an around-town Home-Depot-to-the-grocery-store-to-the-babysitter's-to-the-barbecue family car," with an oddly quiet engine for a muscle car and a gentle side to its athletic ride. Plus, the backseat's huge. "Four 6-foot-plus men could fit inside and enjoy an interstate ride and still have room for that humongous center armrest in the back. Or a goat. It's that roomy," Ramsey writes.

Reviews say the G8 is better in just about every respect than its main competitor, the Dodge Charger (*est. $24,835 to $38,970). Like the Charger, the G8 competes for buyers of large family sedans, but both cars appeal to a completely different type of buyer than critics' top pick in this segment: the safe, reliable, conservative Toyota Avalon (*est. $27,845 to $35,185).

With twitchy gas prices and a floundering economy to deal with, most families won't be in the market for a car like the G8, predicts Eddie Alterman, writing for The New York Times: "It's a pity that America isn't in the market for a sharp-looking V-8-powered anything right now." The Wall Street Journal's Jeff Sabatini agrees, although he, too, is very impressed with the G8's performance. "There have certainly been better times to introduce a family sedan powered by a 6.0-liter V8," he says. "Like, say, 1966."

The base Pontiac G8 (*est. $28,250) comes with a 256-horsepower, 3.6-liter V-6 and a five-speed automatic transmission. The critics' favorite, the Pontiac G8 GT (*est. $31,755), substitutes a 361-horsepower, 6.0-liter V-8 and a six-speed automatic with driver shift control that reviews say is excellent. New for 2009 is the Pontiac G8 GXP (*est. $37,610) which boasts a brawny, Corvette-sourced 415-horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 and either a six-speed automatic or manual transmission. Its fuel economy drops to 13 mpg city/20 highway, according to Pontiac.

Style-wise, critics say the Pontiac G8's exterior largely works. Some could do without the nonfunctional hood scoops and busy front view -- Lieberman at TheTruthAboutCars.com dubs it "exciting ugly" -- but others agree with Autoblog.com's Ramsey that the rest of the G8 is "subtle," especially for a Pontiac. "For those of us who do know a little about Pontiac, we can rejoice in the visual pleasure afforded now that those old tacky tricks -- wings, cladding and hectares of dubious plastic -- have been left in the bag," Ramsey writes.

Inside, some reviewers find no problems. Most note that there's too much hard plastic and too many panel gaps for anyone to mistake the G8 for an upscale sports sedan. Leather seats are optional on all but the GXP trim; although the leather isn't the softest they've seen, critics largely accept this as a minor flaw.

All 2009 Pontiac G8s come with a full complement of airbags, standard electronic stability control and traction control, but neither the federal government nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had crash-tested the G8 when we checked. Reliability data for this model is also lacking. The G8 is covered by a three-year/36,000-mile basic warranty, with five years/100,000 miles for the powertrain.

Critics love to drive the Pontiac G8. Edmunds.com and TheTruthAboutCars.com review it three times apiece; like these sources, Motor Trend and Autoblog.com review the G8 from an enthusiast's standpoint. Testers at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal temper their enthusiasm with thoughts of fuel economy and value. Consumer Reports likewise looks at the G8 from a consumer's point of view. The EPA judges the G8's fuel economy, which is one of the car's worst flaws in reviews.